


Along the Seine

by mabyn



Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Fandom, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Canon Disabled Character, M/M, Making Up, Paris (City), Post-Canon, Rain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-04
Updated: 2015-12-04
Packaged: 2018-05-04 21:58:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5349971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mabyn/pseuds/mabyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charles spots Erik in Cerebro. Now he can't resist going to Paris to find him. Post-DOFP AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Along the Seine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mikanskey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikanskey/gifts).



> Dear mikanskey, I loved your super romantic prompt "A summer downpour. Soaked clothes and nothing to change. Looks that linger ... and more." I hope you like this fill!
> 
> Thank you to daroh for the beta and to spacealtie for help with Paris!

The trees along the quais shimmered green and gold in the round sun. Amidst the happy couples strolling the length of the bridge with their hands entwined, Erik cut a slim and isolated figure. Charles had known for a while where Erik was hiding, but it shook him to see Erik with his own eyes rather than mediated by the safety of Hank’s technology. The world was so different from a decade ago when in tense silence they had stalked the streets of this city on their way to the Hotel Majestic, Charles on one mission and Erik, unknowingly, on another. But then Erik had always been a mystery Charles strove to preserve rather than unravel.

A threatening cloud was rolling in from the West, but Erik barely seemed to notice. He wore no helmet, and he’d swapped the bold colors of his uniform for simple jeans and a plaid shirt. Now it was only the grimly focused expression on his face that distinguished him from everyone else. He leaned against the fence gazing down at the Seine. What was in the water for him? A memory, perhaps, or some terrible future. Charles refused to trespass. Faith wasn’t an error you corrected.

Erik glanced over his shoulder and caught sight of Charles. Pale and confused, young again somehow, Erik’s expression reflected the sudden wave of surprise that slammed against Charles’s mind.

_Charles?_

The rain hit. It was a summer storm, the kind that came all at once in a rush of warm water, and it soaked everything it touched. The surface of the river reached up to greet the sky, the trees bent low in the wind, and mist rose from where the rain met the hot pavement. Water poured down Erik’s face, matting his hair on his forehead and making his shirt cling to his frame, revealing the contours of lean muscle. From the water pooling in the seat of his chair Charles guessed he must look just as disheveled.

A few blocks from here the hotel would be clean and dry. Charles had stayed there several times before. The service was impeccable and the food from its chef rich with butter and cream. His favorite room had its own hearth and a view that stretched for miles over the river. There they might strip out of their wet clothes. Let the pillows towel dry their hair. Find warmth beneath fresh sheets. The rain would beat against the windows, ignored.

Erik squinted back at Charles through wet lashes, a question in his eyes. But he must know the answer already, for the answer never changed. Hope. It was the curse that perennially grew in Charles’s breast, even now, even here.


End file.
